A TOTAL of 3,000 people are needed to call for the abolition of Hatfield Town Council in order to trigger an official review.

As exclusively revealed in last week’s Welwyn Hatfield Times, MP Grant Shapps wants the authority to be scrapped as he says it’s unfair for the town’s residents to be paying more council tax than anywhere else in the borough.

The expense is largely thanks to the town council’s precept – which adds an average �1.34 a week on the council tax bill in Hatfield.

This week, the MP has launched his campaign website – www.FairerDealForHatfield.com – which features an online petition.

If it gets the required number of signatures, it would be presented to the borough council to consider.

Mr Shapps said he hoped the campaign would lead to one of two outcomes, either its full abolition, or retaining the town council but merging its administration with the borough council.

Either move would save hundreds of thousands of pounds.

He said: “Hatfield does have a number of very important community facilities which are currently run by the town council, but there doesn’t appear to be any good reason why these could not be run by the borough council rather than through this additional bureaucracy.”

A spokeswoman for Welwyn Hatfield Council said the petition would have to be signed by at least 10 per cent of the electorate to set up what is termed a “community governance review”.

She said: “The review would consider the petition and other factors, taking into account representations by the town council and other councils that would be impacted by a change.”